Results 881-900 of 26,842 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Employment Support Services (20 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: We could create a few internships monitoring the website.

Social Welfare Benefits (20 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Question 25: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she can reassure the 161,000 carers in the country that there will be no further cuts to their payments in Budget 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21409/11]

Social Welfare Benefits (20 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: When talking about the liberalism of the means test for the carers allowance, is it not the case that the real story is that carers save the State an estimated €2.5 billion euro per year, according to the Carers Association? The cost to the State would be massively higher if those being cared for had to be looked after fully by the State. Is it not also the case that what the Minister...

Social Welfare Benefits (20 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is alarming that the Minister cannot confirm there will not be cuts in this area in the budget. The EU-IMF-ECB troika requires that there be "reforms" - as they are euphemistically called - in the social welfare system. Has the troika commented or made any specific demands concerning carer's allowance?

Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: A lot of politics is being played with this issue. The Government has of course questioned Fianna Fáil's credentials, and rightly so given that the latter reduced the minimum wage and signed up to the IMF-EU deal which demanded this so-called labour market restructuring. The Government also has described this Bill as being inadequate, which it is, but that is all politics. The Government...

Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: If the Government is not so minded, it should give this assurance now and should do something before the summer to ensure these protections remain in place while all its members go on holidays.

Common Fisheries Policy Reform: Statements (20 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I am not an expert on fishing by any means. However, I know the fishing industry is facing a massive crisis and it has been brought to my attention whenever I go to the west and by those fishermen in Dún Laoghaire who are left. It is a coastal town which used to have a thriving fishing industry. All the fishermen say that EU fisheries policies have been a disaster for Ireland and this is...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (20 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Question 43: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will reconsider the cuts to fuel, electricity and phone allowances for the unemployed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21408/11]

Order of Business (Resumed) (21 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Everybody deserves a break. Whatever differences I have with the Members on the other side of the House, I recognise it has been a fairly intense few months in here and all of us have a difficult situation to deal with. I do not doubt that Members have been working hard in their own way by their own lights in order to attempt to deal with the situation. Also, it is important to dispel the...

Order of Business (Resumed) (21 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I just want to make a point. That is a very serious question. That means assets of the State would be used as collateral against changes in interest rates. That is a serious business and we need to know if that is the case.

Order of Business (Resumed) (21 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Another reason is the issue of the JLCs and the uncertainty that faces those low-paid workers. Another reason is the Dáil owes it to a vulnerable section of society to clarify whether it will have the educational supports it needs come September. Heading into the summer, parents of children with special needs who have been refused applications for special needs assistants need to know...

Order of Business (Resumed) (21 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Chairman told us yesterday he was going to be there.

Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann: Motion (21 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I welcome the efforts to reform the Dáil. Although I was not here before to know what it was like, we felt some frustration at the procedures and protocols when it came to making the Dáil a place that can really be responsive to the issues that confront the country and which are brought to us by the public. I welcome the fact that the suggestions to bring in a stricter dress code were...

Standing Orders of Dáil Éireann: Motion (21 Jul 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That is not what we said.

Sale of State Assets (14 Sep 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will pass over the irony of Fianna Fáil railing against privatisation.

Sale of State Assets (14 Sep 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As a State company, the ESB played a key role in transforming Ireland from a Third World country to a modern state. In any rational approach in dealing with the current economic crisis, is it not the case that a successful and profitable company such as the ESB should be kept in public ownership and investment be made in it to develop sustainable energy resources and so forth? This would...

Offshore Exploration (14 Sep 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Question 7: To ask the Minister for Communications; Energy and Natural Resources the quantity of gas produced from the three fields of Kinsale, Ballycotton and Seven Heads, in County Cork; the current commercial value of the gas being produced from these fields; the amount the companies have paid in taxation and the royalties that the Exchequer has received since the commencement of...

Offshore Exploration (14 Sep 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I think the Minister knows the point of my question, which is the extent to which the people of this country will benefit from gas and oil production under the terms that currently operate. It is not very clear to me what €190 million represents as a proportion because the Minister has not really answered that question. If I am correct in understanding what the Minister said, €190...

Offshore Exploration (14 Sep 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The Minister knows the point of my question.

Offshore Exploration (14 Sep 2011)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Even at €80 million a pop, would it not be better for us to borrow the money to invest in a State company to do some drilling rather than borrowing €100 billion to bail out banks? Could we not have borrowed a fraction of that sum to drill because there are estimates of the equivalent of tens of billions of barrels of gas and oil offshore? Would this not have been a better investment...